spindrift1980

I could see that smoke plume from Motherwell, where it looked like it was coming from the Bothwell/Uddingston area. Quite a few miles beyond that!

Completely rubbish in my neck of the woods too. A few centimetres of wet, slushy snow in East Kilbride at 150m asl and nothing at all lying in Motherwell when I left for work. The GFS seems to have been closer to getting the track of the storm and the snow on its northern flank right than the Met Office/Euro4. Looks pretty good up in the Pentlands though.

It's been an astonishingly poor season for snow in the Scottish mountains, at least as bad as the worst years in the 2000s. Still time for things to change but I wouldn't hold out much prospect of any/many of the usual snow patch sites holding snow until the first snows of 2017/18. The ski centre operators must be tearing their hair out then when a storm does eventually arrive, it ends up well to their south. Lowther Ski Club might be taking Friday off work though!

Heavy snow shower in EK at the moment but it looks as though it will be fairly short-lived judging by the radar.

Back to grey gloom today after seeing the sun yesterday for just about the only day this week! Managed to get out for a walk in the Southern Uplands yesterday afternoon and it was ideal crisp walking weather. Frost lingered in the shade all day - I took this photo in the Dalveen Pass and you can clearly see the parts where the sun failed to reach contrasting with the late afternoon light higher on the hillside.

There was very little in Motherwell - a thin layer of wet snow on most surfaces early yesterday which partially thawed and then froze into a hazardous icy glaze on the pavements. Have spent most of the time in EK, which has a decent covering, and got to see some thundersnow, so that has made it feel more wintry.

Experienced it this afternoon in East Kilbride (from indoors!) as per the map posted. Another poster on the Scotland thread noted it around the same time in Dunlop, Ayrshire. The thunder was a bit muffled and muted, but there were several rumbles and flashes. Even if I had been outside, I don't think I'd have been able to see the actual bolts of lighting as the sky was milky and full of snow cloud at the time (unsurprisingly, since it was snowing!)

Thundersnow here in East Kilbride! A flash of lightning just there and the place seems to have disappeared in a great cloud of white.

Similar level of cover to this in East Kilbride, after another heavy shower on the way here. A smattering of wet snow in Motherwell, as the snow only appeared to have start lying in the hours before dawn.

Knowing Ben Lomond, it could just as easily be a Glaswegian jeans and trainers and bottle of Irn Bru expedition!

Going to the hills in winter conditions CAN be fun if you use your head to choose a suitable time, but there are days where you just need to say that it's not a hill day, and (as you say) it's not as though today's conditions haven't been well forecast and advertised!

Ben Lomond is (unfortunately) along with Ben Nevis, and to a lesser extent The Cobbler and some of the other most well-known hills, a magnet for people who treat the hills and weather casually. These are the kind of conditions in the Highlands today (albeit on a 4,000-footer, a good bit higher than Ben Lomond), from a video on the Scottish Avalanche Information Service website. Anyone who goes to the higher hills today needs their head examined (although I'm hoping to go up a hill of some kind on Saturday!!) I walked to East Kilbride town centre at lunch time in a short-lived sleet blizzard and that was harsh enough!

It's not reverse psychology, just good old-fashioned Scottish pessimism!

The snow level on that animation is generally about 200-300m above sea level away from the most inland/central Highland parts, though, so suspect it will largely be a non-event for low ground. Hoping to be wrong though!

A definite downgrade on the Met Office updates IMBY this afternoon with more emphasis on words like 'sleet' and 'wintry showers' - precipitation symbols on the graphical forecast have lower % chance precipitation, sparser showers and even rain at times overnight How are the dew points looking for later? I've revised my expectations to 0cm lying snow at home in Motherwell once again, and maybe 2-5cm on higher ground like East Kilbride. Hoping to be proved wrong though.

Friday now subject to Met Office snow warnings for just about the whole of Scotland in the northerly flow - two slightly different warnings north and south of the central belt. Not convinced about my own location as it notes that "Some inland areas, sheltered from the northerly wind, seem likely to escape most of the showers." But it looks promising for some parts, and it does seem to have the 'wishbone' effect on the showers very far south (northern England). Model Thread is also getting excited about upgrades for Friday, which perhaps augurs less well!

For what it's worth, parts of Lanarkshire also seem to be coming in and out of the warnings with subtle Met Office manipulations of the yellow shaded areas each time they're updated, and the forecast symbols keep changing. Definite lamp-post watching scenario, by the looks of things!

Why is it that the 'wishbone' effect of showers in northerly winds occurs? MWIS suggests it is something to do with the shape of the coastline, as per the map below which I have 'borrowed' from their website, but I've never been sure why the showers don't simply move north to south across the landmass (I appreciate that they sometimes do to some extent, but then get 'used up' by the mountains')

Yes, sudden dark skies and a sleety shower in East Kilbride just now. My home address is just outside the Met Office's warning area, but given the tendency of showers not to stay within strict boundary lines, I would hope that I'm still in with a chance of seeing something later this week.

I'd be interested in people's views as to how much of the apparent decline in cold winter conditions in the British Isles from about the late 80s onwards (and particularly these last few years from 2011 onwards) is down to decreasing frequency of the right synoptics, and how much is down to the same/similar synoptics being less potent than they used to be in advecting cold air to these parts? In other words, would hypothetical mid-20th century chart and 21st century charts showing the same distribution of pressure in the northern hemisphere (in, for argument's sake, a pattern which typically produces cold conditions for the British Isles) produce milder/less severe results in the 21st Century because of declining polar sea ice, cold air in the northern hemisphere, and other warming factors? I suspect this may be less of a factor than changing synoptics (more southerlies and south-westerlies) but wondered if this general area has been studied?

The Met Office has the UK (and not just the Scottish) December record down as 18.3C at Achnashellach in 1948 (surprised this wasn't broken last December, actually). Could be under threat tomorrow by the looks of that forecast.

Can't complain about today's weather - was out in rural South Lanarkshire today - bright, crisp and frosty. There must've been spots in valleys where the temperature didn't get above freezing all day. Was feeling lazy but I shamed myself into going for a walk by thinking about the fish supper and beer I consumed yesterday and the need to work it off - was a good decision! Had to scrape the car when I got back to it at 3.30pm - was -1.5C on car thermometer on back road in hills near Biggar. It did look more cloudy over towards Tweedsmuir so I'm guessing this is why the Borders wasn't as nice. Is going to feel a lot less seasonal this coming week, but fingers crossed for something more interesting thereafter!

Has turned into a bright and pleasant day with a rather autumnal feel - all very well just maybe not many of us, including myself, are after at this time of year!... Met Office still seems to be sticking to its guns on its 'cold first half of winter' forecast - at least, for the moment. Suggestions seem to be that the high might not slip into the continent and that some kind of surface cold (or 'faux cold' in model thread terminology!!) with dry-ish weather might prevail for a while. Who knows? Model thread inhabitants are clinging to this idea anyway in face of the horror charts showing south-westerlies or southerlies.

Hello All, Have been enjoying sporadic visits here over the 'fair weather' season (suprisingly dry at times here in the western lowlands, with some cracking spells in May-June and in early autumn). However, since it's almost meteorlogical winter, it's time to de-lurk! Some great reports and photos upthread of the current cold spell. Had a dusting of powdery stuff on the car this morning but think it might've been from freezing fog rather than snow. Also had a nice early winter walk at Wanlockhead on Saturday where there'd been a respectable fall of snow for the time of year, with ongoing sleet and snow showers.

The patch on the headwall of the Coire Cas at the Cairngorm Ski Centre which lasts into late summer most years also has the same name traditionally, although I don't know it's ever been recorded on a map. The feature on the left of that Ben More map 'sloc curraidh' translates as 'hollow of the porridge' I believe!